Carlos Curbelo, one of the six Republicans to vote with Democrats in favor of a carbon tax, has now unveiled his own proposal.
Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.

A Republican lawmaker has proposed that the US introduce a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, in a departure from the party’s decade-long hostility toward any measure aimed at addressing climate change.

Carlos Curbelo of Florida, considered a moderate GOP member of Congress, said a carbon tax would avoid “saddling young Americans with a crushing environmental debt” and expressed his belief that “this bill or legislation similar to it” will become law one day.

Curbelo’s bill has virtually no chance of becoming law, however, due to the serried ranks of Republicans in Congress who instinctively reject any sort of government intervention, particularly taxes, to help stem the increasing heatwaves, floods, fierce storms and social upheaval caused by a warming planet.

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Last week, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a resolution denouncing the idea of a carbon tax as “detrimental to the United States economy”. Of the 43 Republicans who are members of the Climate Solutions Caucus – a bipartisan group formed to help craft climate policy – only six voted against the motion.

Curbelo, one of the six Republicans to vote with Democrats in favor of a carbon tax, has now unveiled his own proposal. Curbelo represents a district that takes in the southern tip of Florida – an area extremely vulnerable to sea level rise – and faces an uphill battle in this year’s midterm elections.

His plan would tax industrial carbon dioxide emissions $24 a ton from 2020. It would also scrap federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuels, as well as kill off the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era strategy to limit emissions from coal-fired power plants.

According to Columbia University, Curbelo’s plan would cut the US’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to a third by 2025, putting it on course to meet its commitments made in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. It would also raise at least $57bn in 2020, growing to at least $63bn by 2030 as the tax increases. Curbelo wants to use this cash to upgrade infrastructure, particularly roads.

“While there are still some deniers out there, most Americans today understand that climate change caused by human activity is a reality that must be addressed,” he said.

“I remind my conservative colleagues who often decry our nation’s growing debt; saddling young Americans with a crushing environmental debt – meaning an unhealthy planet where life is less viable – is at least as immoral as leaving behind an unsustainable fiscal debt.”

Republican hostility to any sort of action on climate change has hardened over the past decade, despite increasingly urgent warnings from scientists. Donald Trump, who has called global warming “bullshit” and a Chinese-inspired hoax, has taken an axe to various climate regulations and said the US will withdraw from the Paris climate accords.

Curbelo’s plan has received a mixed reaction from environmentalists. Some green groups have derided it as an empty re-election gesture that could actually increase emissions in a major sector – transportation – by funneling money into road construction and slashing fuel taxes.

Others, though, see it as a sign the American political conversation around climate change is slowly evolving, given a backdrop of increasing public confidence in climate science.

“It’s a breakthrough to see a serious Republican proposal take aim at the central environmental threat of our time,” said David Doniger, senior strategic director of the climate and clan energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“But this carbon tax plan is only a conversation starter. It falls far short of what’s needed to protect our climate. We must deploy all available tools, not limit them as this bill does, to head off the worst damages from climate change.”

Cities and states have sought to fill the void left by Trump’s retreat from climate change, with several attempting to sue major oil companies for damages.

Last week, a judge tossed out New York City’s claim against five oil giants, stating that the issue should be dealt with by legislation. Similar climate legal action has been launched in recent weeks by Rhode Island and Baltimore.